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Moving to New York packup party, goodbyes and farewell greeting cards
Packing possessions for the train trip
March 16, 1979
03-16-leaving-milwaukee (11 images) Click a picture to see a larger view.
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Connie, Doris, Gerry, Ruth all helped Dennis get packed
Dennis took only his clothes and personal items
The initial move trip was made on Amtrak. The trip ticket was $86 one way in a sleeper from Milwaukee to New York. The remaining possessions would go later
I left my 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass in Milwaukee with Ruth Pellmann, planning to return later in 1979 to pick it up. The full move was with the car and a U-Haul rental trailer in June of the same year. I needed to get settled in New York, and make sure I wanted to stay there. Bunny Conway predicted that I would be back in Wisconsin in 6 months. The page is being created 38 years later; Bunny was very wrong. I decided to move back to Wisconsin in 2017 when I was retired.
Party Time
The apartment on 38th Street in Milwaukee was a mess while we packed. Gerry and Doris Ferguson, newly married, lived above Ruth and I and Connie Ida came from her apartment on Milwaukee's south side to help. It only took two or three hours to pack and sort 6 large boxes. Everyone stayed and we smoked a toke, drank a little and had a terrific time after the work was done. There will be a larger farewell party at Tess's Tap and there would be another in June when I briefly returned to Milwaukee
Moving was a big deal
I was working for Woolworth and had been for 12 years before I made the move to New York. Woolworth and the retail industry in general had changed significantly. I had had it, and did not want to continue in retailing. I had developed a friendship with someone from New York (he had frequent business in Milwaukee planning his convention ). I wanted to try sometime different. He convinced my "if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere". So off I went. I was thirty-one years old but it was not impulsive, I had been planning a move and a career change for months. I just didn't know what that career would be. I quit without notice just 2 days before (I waited for my monthly check to come before I quit)
Starting over was tough. I only had experience milking cows and in retailing. I didn't want to do either of them anymore. I went to New York without a job waiting. I expected to get unemployment for a short time but that was my only forecasted income. The only thing I had in the move was a place to stay in NY
It was cultural shock to move to New York. It is a world city, unlike almost every part of America; every language is spoken there. Cars are mostly a nuisance (only 40 percent of the population had drivers licenses). And on and on. It took a year to adjust. I've include two photos of my first month there and I was not happy. You can see it on my face.
New York can be a cold, cold place and meeting people can be daunting. It is very had to find new friends there but eventually it happens. I remember meeting an early acquaintance in a bar. I had trouble understanding his language. It took a few minutes to realize he was speaking English with a heavy, heavy New York accent. He was a native New Yorker
I got brief temporary jobs with an "on call" inventory service and one with my new roommate, Charles Hull, managing his convention in Milwaukee. I was down to my last $50 and started office clerking with a temporary service. (They charged a bundle for my time but paid me peanuts. I remember telling Gerry how I was in the subway and drooled for a candy bar that I could not afford ) That job developed into my second career, computer service management. I had many years with American Express at its headquarters. It took a year or more but happiness returned and I LOVE NEW YORK
Coda: My Milwaukee friends tell me our group of friends fell apart after I left. I guess it is the ultimate compliment of friends.
Keys:
Dennis, moving, New York, packup, Milwaukee, 1979, farewell, friends, new
Photos taken with a Polaroid SX-70 and digitized 35 years later, in 2014, by Dennis from a photo album
